| Run for Your Wife | |
| Director: | Ray Cooney John Luton |
| Producer: | Graham Fowler James Simpson |
| Music: | Walter Mair |
| Cinematography: | Graham Fowler |
| Editing: | John Pegg |
| Production Companies: | Run for Your Wife Film |
| Distributor: | Ballpark Film Distributors |
| Runtime: | 94 minutes |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | £900,000 ($1,144,260.04) |
Run for Your Wife is a 2012 British comedy film, based on the 1983 theatre farce Run for Your Wife, written by Ray Cooney who, along with John Luton, also directed the film. The film made its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on 19 May 2012 before being theatrically released in the United Kingdom on 14 February 2013. Upon release, the film promptly received universally negative reviews from critics and has been referred to as one of the worst films of all time, after it grossed just £602 ($765.38) in its opening weekend.[1] [2]
The story of London cab driver John Smith, with two wives, two lives, and a very precise schedule for juggling them both. With one wife, Michelle, at home in Stockwell and another, Stephanie, at home in Finsbury.
Trouble brews when Smith intervenes in a mugging. After being hit on the head, he ends up in hospital. This upsets his schedule and causes both wives to report him missing. Smith becomes hopelessly entangled in his attempts with Gary, his doltish ne'er-do-well neighbour downstairs in Stockwell, to explain himself to his wives and two suspicious police officers.
Over 80 celebrities agreed to make cameo appearances, having all said they would donate their fees to a theatrical charity.[3] The executive producer was Vicki Michelle.[4]
During filming, Dyer was mistaken by onlookers for an actual taxi driver. According to the end credits, there was a sequel planned, based on Cooney's later play Caught in the Net. However, perhaps owing to this film's disastrous box office returns, the project did not materialise.
Run for Your Wife had so many overwhelmingly negative reviews upon release that the reviews themselves were widely reported in the UK media.[5] The film was variously described as "a catastrophe", "as funny as leprosy", and "30 years past its sell-by date", with The Guardian reviewer Peter Bradshaw saying that it "makes The Dick Emery Show look edgy and contemporary".[6]
The Independents Anthony Quinn wrote, "The stage play ran for nine years – it [the film] will be lucky to run for nine days. Perhaps never in the field of light entertainment have so many actors sacrificed so much dignity in the cause of so few jokes... From the look of it, Cooney hasn't been in a cinema for about 30 years."[7] The cameo-heavy cast was commented upon by several reviewers, with the Metro commenting that "no one emerges unscathed among the cameo-packed cast that reads largely like a roll-call for Brit TV legends you'd previously suspected deceased".[8]
The Daily Record described the film as "an exasperating farce containing not one single, solitary laugh. people losing their trousers and falling over, the film looks like a pilot for a (mercifully) never-commissioned 70s sitcom."[9] An article in the Independent described Run for Your Wife (along with the similarly badly received Movie 43) as contenders for the title of the "worst film in history".[10]
The Berkhamsted & Tring Gazette reported "critics have being queuing up to batter recent release Run for Your Wife, with general agreement that it ranks among the worst British comedies of all time".[11] The South African newspaper Daily News stated that "Run for Your Wife could be the worst film in history",[12] the Studio Briefing website reported that "Some writers are making the case that the British comedy Run for Your Wife, written by and starring [sic] comedian Ray Cooney, may be “the worst film ever"”,[13] and The Daily Mirror reported (a few months after its release) that Run for Your Wife "was branded the worst British film ever".[14]
Run for Your Wife currently has a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[15]